


Traitors

by AutumnAgain



Series: Traitors AU [2]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: (M'gann sweetie I'm so sorry I know you're better than this in canon), (actually Cheshire's probably having fun), AU where everyone is the mole, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Betrayal, Character Study, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mind Control, No one is having a good time, The Light (Young Justice) - Freeform, Unhealthy Relationships, Unreliable Narrator, author tries to avoid character bashing, some characters come across worse than others for plot reasons, the justice league is not evil, the team is evil, villain AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnAgain/pseuds/AutumnAgain
Summary: The Team has a mole... or seven. Villain AU.
Relationships: Artemis Crock/Wally West, Dick Grayson/Zatanna Zatara, Kon-El | Conner Kent/M'gann M'orzz, Roy Harper/Jade Nguyen
Series: Traitors AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954585
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes place in the same AU as my oneshot "Fate is for Fools", and provides context for that story. Warnings for violence mentions and possible implied rape/abuse due to mind control in later chapters. Nothing explicit or graphic.  
> Originally posted on FFN.

Justice League Watchtower

Black Canary

Log Entry 01. 12. XX.

Subject: Young Justice

The Team has been corrupted. Although we at first suspected a single mole, not even Batman was prepared for a betrayal of this magnitude. This log exists as an attempt to understand the events of New Year's Day, and the factors which led up to it. May it prove enlightening.

The issues began with the former Speedy. On a mission with Green Arrow, he was kidnapped by agents of the Light and replaced with an identical clone programmed to spy on the League. Refused entry to the Watchtower the clone, now known as Red Arrow, went rogue. When a League mission stumbled across the original Speedy, Arrows Red and Green had an argument which led to Red Arrow officially cutting all ties to the League and declaring us his enemies. It has since come to light that Red Arrow did not, as previously assumed, cut ties with the Young Justice Team at that time. Phone logs have revealed evidence of multiple lengthy conversations with Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash, none of which were ever reported to the League. As of now, Red Arrow is believed to be in the company of the League of Shadows assassin known as Cheshire, although their exact whereabouts are unknown.

The second entry point for corruption lay with Green Arrow's second protégée, Artemis. The daughter of Sportsmaster and the sister of Cheshire, Artemis's faith in the League was worn away through rumor, suspicion, and mistrust. Meetings with Cheshire and, later, Red Arrow convinced her that no one would accept her as a hero if her past became known, and Green Arrow's reaction to Speedy's replacement cemented her fears. It is unknown when, precisely, she decided to turn traitor, but by the events of January First she had cast her lot in entirely with her family and the Light.

Superman's neglect of Superboy was the third turning point. Raised by Cadmus, faced with a father who preferred to pretend that he did not exist, Superboy came to rely on the first adult to show him parental affection: Lex Luthor. Superboy had never owed anything to the League, and Luthor gave him both support and power to match his father. Given the circumstances, his betrayal was understandable and apparently inevitable.

The same cannot be said for Aqualad, who betrayed the League after learning that his father's identity had been hidden from him for his entire life, robbing him of a relationship with a man who genuinely cared for him. This would not have caused quite so many problems had his father not been the supervillain Black Manta, a member of the Light and a colleague of Luthor, Cheshire, and Sportsmaster. I suspect that the combination of friends and family on the side of the Light was enough to lure him fully away from a king and mentor whom he felt had betrayed his trust.

The details of Miss Martian's turning are less clear, but she has been spotted in the presence of Queen Bee on several occasions, and the Martian Manhunter suggests that she may have initially been blackmailed. It seems unlikely that this has remained her primary motivation, given the zealousness with which she now performs tasks for the Light.

Given the content of her many emotional outbursts on the subject, Zatanna blames the League and Doctor Fate for the loss of her father. Study of her magic before and after the January first incident suggests that she is now using chaos magic, indicating the influence of the Chaos Lord known as Klarion the Witch Boy.

Robin's motivations have not been revealed, although Batman suspects mind control or sorcery. Kid Flash has not been seen since before the incident, and by now he is likely a traitor, a prisoner, or a corpse.

No member of the Young Justice Team can be trusted. They have betrayed us to our enemies, sealed off their base to us, and declared themselves to be in every way opposed to our ideals. They have chosen their side, and it is not ours. They know our strengths, our weaknesses, and even our identities. They have the power to destroy us, and there is nothing we can do.

-End Log-


	2. The Runner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kid Flash is introduced, the tags become relevant, and the author feels a bit guilty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has the worst of the mind control/dehumanization stuff. There's some implied dubcon but it's very much off-page and no details are given.

Kid Flash is good at running. He is fast, and he has good endurance when he can get enough to eat. He likes running, and his friends like it when he runs. Running is the only thing he really understands anymore.

Wally used to understand other things, he thinks. He remembers being good at science, and telling jokes, and questioning orders, but he isn't sure that any of that is real. His memory is as foggy as the rest of his head, now.

Wally isn't quite sure what happened. There was a fight, he thinks, and he tried to run to the zeta tube to tell his uncle…something. He doesn't remember what. He isn't sure why he wanted to talk to his uncle, either, because Barry Allen is with the Justice League and Not to Be Trusted. He vaguely remembers that he used to trust them, and he isn't sure what changed; only that he tried to run but Megan caught him by the brain and _pushed_. He isn't sure if she meant to break him or if she just made a mistake, but she is Megan and she doesn't make mistakes, so it must have been on purpose. He must have been about to do something Bad, for her to punish him like that, so he is sure to apologize to her whenever he can.

Megan does everything for Wally's own good, even fogging up his brain. When things make less sense than usual, and his brain hurts and he starts thinking things like "Why did I kill that man?" or "Isn't stealing wrong?" or "What am I doing?" he just has to mention it to one of the others and Megan comes right away; her eyes start glowing and she makes everything okay again. He knows that things are Very Wrong when he doubts Megan, because she is the Leader and she is Always Right. He thinks that Kaldur used to be the leader, but that time feels very far away.

Dick is his Best Friend. Wally knows this because Dick talks to him and tells him what to do so he doesn't feel useless. Dick teaches Wally all kinds of things, like how to sneak and how to intimidate and how to kill. In return, Wally does whatever Dick says without questioning him or hesitating. Megan is Always Right, but Dick knows everything, so his plans are always the best thing to do.

Wally thinks that Artemis is his girlfriend. He isn't sure, because he remembers a lot of arguing and fighting in the past, and she calls him her pet when she talks about him, but she kisses him hard and keeps him in her room and tells him what to do, and he thinks that's what a girlfriend does. He has a hard time remembering.

After she broke him, Megan took Wally aside and gave him instructions. She told him to act normal and not tell anything to his parents or Uncle Barry, because the Justice League was Bad News and they couldn't be trusted with anything. He must have messed up somehow, because Uncle Barry got worried and called the League and then Wally got taken to a League Safe House where the Martian Manhunter poked and prodded at his head, which hurt a lot but didn't do anything to make the fog go away.

Wally doesn't know how long it took before Megan came in and offered to take over for him. She took away the pain and told him to stay quiet, then she did something to make Uncle Barry pass out and Zatanna showed up and took him back to the Cave, where Artemis told him he had to stay until the League was dealt with. He didn't know what she meant, but he followed her back to her room and let her do what she wanted with him.

Dick hid him when the League came to talk about how he was missing, and they pretended to grieve while Megan kept him quiet and still. They kept him there for a while, until something changed and Dick erased the Leaguers' clearance to the Cave while the Leaguers erased their clearance everywhere else. A while later he met Kaldur's dad, who seemed nice, and Artemis' sister, who reminded him of someone. He wasn't sure who Jade reminded him of, or why it seemed slightly off that she was dating Roy. Megan made the confusion go away and introduced him to her new mentor, who was the most beautiful woman he'd ever met and the queen of her own country. He doesn't like Klarion as much, but Wally and Zatanna aren't that close, so the Chaos Lord is pretty easy to avoid.

Wally knows that the Light has big plans, and Dick and Megan especially are really excited about them, but he doesn't really understand what their goals are. As Artemis assures him, though, he doesn't need to understand. Wally is Kid Flash. All he has to do is run.


	3. The Tactician

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Robin makes excuses

Dick isn't oblivious. He knows that if not for M'gann's interference his choices would have been different. He knows that he would never have willingly betrayed Bruce, or agreed to use Jason as a mole, or been okay with treating Wally more like a pet than a person, if she hadn't gone into his head and changed a few things. He knows that he isn't the person he used to be, but he also knows that that person is dead, and if the League tries to bring that naive kid back they'll only kill him instead. It's not like they could, anyway; Megan is far stronger than her uncle, stronger than anyone the League has access to, and Dick knows that she's planted some rather nasty defenses in all of their minds.

Past Dick - the Dick who was weak, who didn't understand that morality was just a construct, especially somewhere like Gotham - would never have considered letting her run the Team. Kaldur was the oldest, Dick was the most experienced, and Wally had the most ambition. (He used to, anyway. M'gann had really done a number on him when he tried to betray them, especially since he hadn't been betraying them so much as refusing to betray the League). Megan is the most powerful, though, and New Dick understands how important that is. She never has to worry about betrayal or secrets. She knows their strengths and she can protect herself while directing everyone else. M'gann is a born warrior, like all White Martians, and what she lacks in precision she can easily make up for with brute force.

Dick isn't a killer, really; that's Artemis' job. He'd been trained by Batman for most of his life, and the lethal tactics he learned from Talia and Deathstroke will never come as naturally as the nonlethal attacks he memorized at age nine. Still, Megan rarely wants people dead. His job is usually to incapacitate his targets (everyone from security guards to C.E.O.s), bring them to her, and dispose of their comatose bodies when she's done taking everything she needs from their minds. He has yet to hear of any of them recovering from her attacks, and he suspects that if they ever do they will have nightmares for life.

Dick and Artemis often tag-team: he goes for the target while she removes anyone in their way. She's a good partner, even if she does make fun of his Bat-training more often than he would like. Still, they respect each other in the way that only two humans used to holding their own among gods can. Honestly, Artemis is probably his closest friend on the Team now, although Wally probably still thinks he holds that position. Dick pities the guy, a little. He used to be a genius, and now he's little more than a puppet. That doesn't stop Dick from making use of him, of course. Megan made him so eager to please that Dick can order him to do anything and he'll do it. He and Artemis use him as a distraction, sometimes; Speed Force healing is the best. No matter what kind of damage he takes, Wally recovers within the week, and thanks to Megan he rarely even remembers it.

Much as he admires Megan's power, and Artemis' precision, Dick loves watching Zatanna's skill. The witch can accomplish just about anything, and under Klarion's guidance her power is increasing rapidly. She's still no match for a Lord of Order, but she's far better than Giovanni Zatara ever was, and she knows it. On their dates she sets off alarms, robs museums, turns people into animals, and causes all manner of chaos solely because she can. When they're alone, they complain about overprotective, Holier-than-Thou fathers and mockingly imitate members of the Justice League. She's beautiful when she laughs, and Dick loves to watch her work.

He doesn't see Roy much, although Jade brings him by sometimes when she comes to visit her sister. The four of them – Roy, Jade, Dick, and Artemis – hold melees and archery contests while the others cheer them on, and the two older mercenaries are always willing to give them pointers or tell them what to work on. They weren't there the one and only time Sportsmaster visited, which was probably a good thing: Dick happens to prefer the mountain intact.

The only thing Dick regrets in this new life, where laws are for other people and death is incidental, is the way it hurts Alfred. When he comes home bloody, when he needles Bruce, when he talks casually of murder, he can see the old man wince. At least it's easy for him to justify rejecting Bruce: the man thought it was a good idea to take a _nine-year-old_ with him to fights against the _Joker_ , for god's sake! Maybe if he'd been raised by literally anyone else, in any other city, he would have had the chance to actually be a normal kid, to grow up and make friends without having to lie to them constantly. (One of the first things he'd done when the Team officially cut ties with the League was finally tell his best friends his real name. Dick doesn't think he can ever forgive Bruce for making him hide that, even in the unlikely event that Megan lets up on her constant influence of everyone's thoughts). The way Bruce picked up and started training Jason mere months after Dick's betrayal solidified his resentment. How dare Bruce treat him like he was replaceable?

He still lives in the Manor (where else is he supposed to go? He's barely a teenager) and nothing outwardly changes for Dick Grayson after Robin's betrayal (Babs notices that something's wrong, but she doesn't know what, and even if she is his best friend he's not about to tell her. She admires Batman too much to be trustworthy). In the interval between Jason's adoption and the beginning of his vigilante training he keeps his mask of normalcy on even around the house, although as soon as Jay is indoctrinated into the world of masks and capes he goes back to ignoring Bruce whenever they aren't arguing. He gets along pretty well with his new brother – the kid's a pragmatist; he feels like he owes Bruce for taking him off the streets but he's not invested in the man's code of honor like Dick was when he was younger. It's pretty easy to convince Jason to share information Dick isn't supposed to have access to anymore, and even with the League's new safeguards to protect against telepathic or magical influence M'gann thinks he might be worth recruiting when he's older. (She's been practicing, and she's getting much better at altering people's morals without destroying their personalities. He knows that he turned out okay, but he's pretty sure Zatanna, Artemis, Kaldur, Connor, and Roy had already had him partly convinced, so he wasn't fighting her influence as much as he could have. If he's given a say in the matter, Dick wants to be sure that his little brother won't end up like Wally.)

He can't stand Alfred's disapproval for very long, so he spends as little time as possible at home, and when he has to be there he tries to avoid everyone but Jason, or at least invite Babs over as a buffer. He wonders sometimes how he ended up being the one on the Team with the worst family life. Connor and Kaldur have their fathers' full approval of their choices, Artemis still has her sister and her mom, M'gann's parents are too far away to know what's going on, Zatanna's father is as good as dead, Roy is _married_ … Sometimes Dick wonders if it was worth giving up what he had before, but then Megan calls him over to give his input on strategy, or Artemis starts complaining about sanctimonious, overpowered heroes, or Zatanna kisses him, and he decides that no, he doesn't need Bruce or even Alfred. His family is here, and they need him, and they are worth everything.


	4. The Warrior

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Aquaman makes mistakes, and Kaldur is a bit less forgiving than in canon

Kaldur'ahm of Atlantis is a loyal person. Oh, he knows people who would disagree (his King, the League, Queen Mera, Garth, Tula) but that's because they don't understand. Once Kaldur has given his loyalty to something or someone, it isn't easily lost.

That's why his King's betrayal hurt so much.

Did King Orin really believe that he couldn't be trusted, that he would turn against the only home he had ever known solely because of his heritage? If he had known from the start about his parentage, if his King had only _told_ him, he would never have strayed from Aquaman's side. By hiding it, however…

Kaldur does not give his trust easily, and once he has given it he expects as much in return. That his King would judge him for his parentage, would hide the truth from him as though he could not be trusted to make his own decisions, hurt more than he cared to admit.

Black Manta had caught him while he was alone, practicing his magic. The League had only recently found the original Speedy, and Kaldur had needed to work through his thoughts and emotions on the matter in private before rejoining the Team. He had an obligation to be the calm one, and he knew that this would be an emotional situation for all of them. Kaldur had sought to fight, but he was sorely outnumbered, far from any assistance, and the man had only wanted to talk. Kaldur hadn't believed him at first, but he'd had stories, pictures, evidence, and it explained a few things he'd overheard over the years and never quite understood. Black Manta and his men had left after Kaldur promised to think about what he'd been told, leaving Kaldur with the number for a burner phone and a warning against using it to lay any traps.

He'd confronted Aquaman about it as soon as he could, after swimming back to the Cave and taking the Zeta Tube to Atlantis. His king had tried to brush him off – Red Arrow had run away, no one could find him, they didn't have time to deal with whatever it was Kaldur wanted to talk about, they'd talk later, okay? – but Kaldur had, for the first time in his life, disobeyed a direct order from his King.

"Is it true that Black Manta is my father?" he had asked, in front of the entire court. The king hadn't tried to deny it, only sighed and offered meaningless excuses for not telling him sooner, then swam away and called for Mera to talk to him. The queen's attempts to justify the secret-keeping were even worse. He'd returned to the Cave.

The next time he had returned to Atlantis, it had been to the accompaniment of whispers and sidelong glances. Garth and Tula had tried to support him, but Garth had made the mistake of opening his comments with "We don't know why anyone would spread such terrible rumors about you. Of course you aren't related to Black Manta!" and neither he nor Tula could quite hide their fear when they learned that the rumors were true. The rest of the conversation was awkward, strange, and his friends kept looking at him as if they expected him to turn into a monster at any moment.

It was after that disaster of a visit that he'd called Black Manta for the first time. He just wanted to vent a little – Kaldur didn't really have anyone to lean on, he was the one to support everyone else, and the way everyone was treating him _was_ Manta's fault, in a way. The man was… surprisingly easy to talk to. He responded in the right places, didn't interrupt or try to make Kaldur feel like he was overreacting, and apologized, at the end of Kaldur's uncharacteristic rant, for being the cause of Kaldur's troubles. He said that he had only wanted to try and get to know his son. Kaldur told the man that he didn't blame him, and was surprised to find that it was true.

They'd had a few more conversations after that, neither revealing information that would compromise their respective teams (at least not intentionally. Both slipped up on occasion, but Kaldur at least was polite enough to pretend that he hadn't heard), and Kaldur was surprised to realize, one day, that he had begun to think of Manta as an actual parent, not just the man who had fathered him. When Black Manta asked him to come to Santa Prisca with the Light Kaldur didn't hesitate to accept. It wasn't that he believed in them, but the League kept secrets, and it couldn't hurt to hear them out.

He hadn't expected to find Artemis and Connor and Megan there, but he wasn't exactly surprised. The League really was terrible at keeping people's trust. His memories of the rest of the meeting were just slightly blurred (in hindsight he recognized M'gann's influence over his thoughts, but he hadn't realized that she could or would do such a thing at the time) but he had come out thoroughly convinced of the Light's ideology. The League had to go.

His contact with his father grew more frequent over the next few months (Manta had some great ideas on how to convince Zatanna and Robin to turn) even as his contact with Atlantis waned. He couldn't stand to look his king in the eye anymore, and he was greatly relieved when they finally revealed themselves, on New Year's, and he got to finally tell King Orin how he really felt.

Kaldur doesn't quite remember what happened to Wally, or how M'gann ended up in charge (he knows _how_ she did it, of course, the White Martian isn't exactly subtle, it's the context that eludes him) but he's glad that he doesn't have to shoulder the burden of leadership any more. If he hadn't been leader, if he had been able to share his fears with his friends rather than keep them to himself so that he could continue to appear strong, he thinks things would have gone differently (not vastly differently, not if M'gann had still decided to change sides, but still differently). He really doesn't envy her, even with all her power and the way she bends everyone around her to her will. He knows what it's like to be the leader, he never really wanted to be, and he's quietly grateful that now he's just another member of the team.

Despite everything, Kaldur is still a loyal person. He may not be loyal to the same things he was when he was younger, but he's loyal to his family, he's loyal to his friends, and he's loyal to his team. They trust him in return, as much as they trust anyone, and that matters far more to Kaldur than alleged morals.

* * *


	5. The Killer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Artemis lies to herself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for implied abuse/sexual assault

Artemis is finally free. For her entire life she's had to subvert herself to fit other people's interests - her father, her mother, Ollie, the League - but now she can do what she wants, put herself first, discover who Artemis Crock really is.

She isn't her father's successor, nor her mother's, nor Jade's. She may be in the same line of work as them, but she chose it on her own, because she's good at it, not because they expected her to.

She isn't a hero, not like Dinah or Ollie or the League. She tried to be, but she could never really understand their rules (why can't we just kill him? He'll only escape again if we let him live) and they could always tell she didn't quite fit in. (She would tease Roy about the irony of him accusing her of being a traitor when they first met, if his origins weren't still such a sore point for him. Jade appreciates the joke of it, at least.)

She didn't fit in at school, or at home (too poor to mesh with the rich brats at Gotham Academy, too mouthy to get along with her father, too unrepentant for her mother. The neighbors avoided her too, the other teenagers mocking her for her fancy school while the children hid from the daughter of Sportsmaster and Huntress who walked with too much confidence for any Gothamite who wasn't a Bat or a villain). She almost fit with the Team - because it was new, and nobody knew what they were doing, and she could hold her own as well as anyone in a fight - but she was still shackled by expectations, and it took Wally ages to get over the fact that she wasn't Roy.

The discovery that her predecessor was a clone shook her, probably more than anyone else. She was the one who had to go on patrol with Ollie while he ranted about the kid who had been his son for years, the one recruited to search out "where that traitorous clone is hiding, and who he's reporting to" when Roy broke out of house arrest and went on the run, the one who had to make a choice when her sister called to ask for help and information.

She could have turned them over, when Jade led her to the abandoned apartment (she needed medical supplies, for an arrow wound in Roy's side that had gotten infected before she found him, but the League had everyone on high alert, and Jade didn't want to leave Roy alone in his condition. Artemis going out to patrol by herself wouldn't raise any alarms. Cheshire - or even Jade Nguyen - robbing a drug store for antibiotics and bandages would.) Instead, she helped her sister clean out the infection, apply a salve, replace the bandages. She nearly emptied her emergency medical kit, and she told both of them that they were idiots, but she didn't contact the League, and she visited whenever she could while Roy recovered.

The invitation to Santa Prisca was a spur-of-the-moment thing on Jade's part, a casual "Hey, a bunch of us are doing this thing, if you wanna come," except that the "thing" was a meeting of supervillains to discuss overthrowing the Justice League. Roy wasn't going, because he was still injured and he didn't really want to deal with Sportsmaster, so Jade had an extra invitation. Artemis agreed mostly out of curiosity. Apparently Luthor and Manta were bringing their new proteges, and Jade had heard a rumor that Bee would bring the mysterious telepath that she, M'gann, and Zatanna had spent several fruitless days utterly failing to locate on a recent mission to Biyalia, and Artemis figured that at least she could get a better idea of what the Light was up to.

In retrospect, it was obvious. Kaldur had been acting weird lately (Artemis was an expert in telling when people were keeping secrets, but she'd been wrapped up in her own dilemmas and had misattributed his issues to worry about Roy), and M'gann had been growing increasingly… off… for months (Artemis had wrongly assumed it was an alien thing. Maybe she was homesick?). Conner hadn't displayed any changes in behavior, but why would he have? His loyalty had been with Cadmus and Luthor from the beginning.

She'd thought about notifying the League, or doing something about the fact that half the team was made up of traitors before realizing that she was being an idiot (when had M'gann's eyes started glowing?) and this was a great thing! With all four of them working together, plus Roy and Jade, it would be easy to bring the Team to the Light. They could make the League pay for treating them like sidekicks, become their own people, finally free themselves from the useless rules their "mentors" forced them to obey.

Artemis left the meeting feeling like herself for the first time… maybe ever. They had Zatanna convinced within the week, Robin less than a month later. They were trying to find the best way to recruit Wally when she slipped up.

Artemis hadn't realized he'd come in early (apparently Central City had had a town holiday or something, so he hadn't gone to school) and she'd started telling Robin a story about somebody she'd killed as a way to keep Ollie distracted. Wally had overheard, and then-

Wally belongs to Artemis. Sure, legally he belongs to his parents (or maybe the Flash, Artemis isn't sure), and the Team belongs to M'gann, but physically, as a person, Wally is hers. Artemis never had a lot that was hers (her equipment belonged to her dad, her style belonged to Ollie, her school was paid for by Mr. Wayne) and she isn't giving him up.

Maybe he's not the same Wally she knew before, the one who insulted her and made bad jokes and hit on anything that moved, but Artemis thinks that she likes this version better. He's as hot as he's always been, but he's perfectly obedient and he absolutely adores her. As a bonus, Speed Force healing means she can do whatever she wants to him without leaving any lasting marks. He's basically the perfect boyfriend.

Finally, Artemis is free of control. She's stopped caring what her mom tells her, stopped listening to the League, stopped fearing her father even a little. She's making her own choices, standing with her friends, doing things her way. (If she's so in control, then why is her memory full of gaps?) After sixteen years, Artemis is finally free.


	6. The Weapon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Superboy is surprisingly okay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some mild language here, but thematically this is probably the most mild chapter in the whole thing. As a note, Conner regularly refers to Superman as "Kal-El" (which, if not exactly common knowledge, isn't a secret), rather than "Clark Kent". He actually doesn't know Superman's real identity, (even though Dick, and by extension Megan, does) for a couple reasons.
> 
> 1\. He doesn't want to think of Superman as a normal human person. He's supposed to be better than that, and it's a lot easier to hate an aloof guy who only appears to be sanctimonious and disappear without cleaning up than a random guy trying his best to balance his life.
> 
> 2\. Megan likes having information that the Light doesn't. It makes the team more valuable. The more people know stuff like that, the less valuable the information is, and the more likely it is that someone will leak it. No one thinks he'll tell Luthor on purpose, but Lex is smart and Conner isn't a great liar. It's easier for him to keep the secret if he really doesn't know.

Conner isn't the bad guy. He isn't sure what he is, exactly - he's never been good with words - but not that. He isn't a hero, either, but it's only arrogant pricks like Superman who think that everything is black and white, neatly divided into "good" and "evil". Kal-El is "good". Anyone who opposes him, or who he doesn't understand, is "evil". Conner is infinitely grateful that he isn't really a clone, even if he looks like it. Sharing even half of his DNA with someone that disconnected from reality is so annoying it makes him want to claw his skin off whenever he sees the man on the news, or hears about his exploits from someone else. There's a reason he prefers to watch static.

Project Kr was a weapon. He had no purpose but to defeat and replace Superman, if the alien ever managed to look away from his own ego enough to cause real problems. He was meant to be dangerous, powerful, and obedient (unlike Match, who Zatanna freed as part of a prank war with Dick and Artemis. Even Kaldur admitted that watching the League frantically scramble to deal with the Kryptonian clone on an uncontrollable rampage was hilarious). Conner defaults to that mindset on missions sometimes, when it's easier to just let M'gann (or sometimes Dick or Kaldur or Artemis, depending on the situation) tell him what to do. It's easier to get things done that way, but he isn't really Project Kr anymore, hasn't been since the others led him out of Cadmus for the first time, and he started to think about being a person.

Superboy is a slap in the face, a reminder that Conner _exists_ , dammit, and nothing Superman does will change that. He won't wear the cape or the spandex, but the crest is his as much as Superman's and Conner won't let his not-father forget that, no matter what happens, he is still a member of the House of El.

They could have been family. Conner wanted to be, for a long time, and it isn't his fault that he was rejected. The way he sees it, Kal-El has only himself to blame for the way things turned out. Conner wasn't the one who chose to be enemies.

Conner is the son of Lex Luthor, even if they don't share a name. He knows that Lex is using him for power, as much as he's using Lex (they still don't know how LexCorp makes those shields, and it rankles a bit to be so reliant on anyone outside the team, but as long as Conner keeps up his end Lex will do the same). It's more of a business relationship than a familial one, but it's way more than he ever had with Superman, and he's going to protect it.

Conner still isn't sure who he is. He's the one who protects Wally from the worst of things, because even broken like this he's still one of them, and the speedster has approximately zero self-preservation instinct. He's M'gann's confidant, the one she talks to when she wants a real answer instead of puppeteered agreement. She still controls him sometimes, and his thoughts will never be private, but she values him as somebody willing to express disagreement and still follow once the plan is finalized. Besides, he needs her help to deal with the rage that comes with the shields, to keep his emotions from overwhelming him. They make each other better, he thinks. The League doesn't know anything. Sometimes the two of them leave the mountain and go out as just Megan and Conner, not the leader of a war against the most powerful people on the planet and her half-human boyfriend. He might not participate in the prank wars, but he likes watching them happen, and he volunteers to judge the inevitable archery competitions whenever Roy comes to visit. He likes talking with Kaldur; the Atlantean is so much calmer than most of their friends, and it's nice to be able to relax.

Conner Kent isn't a hero, but he's not a villain either. If he had to choose a single word to represent himself, he'd say that he is a friend. He wouldn't be wrong.


	7. The Witch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Zatanna is also here

Zatanna Zatara is an agent of Chaos. She's grown a lot from the little girl who couldn't do anything without her father's permission, the girl who had to beg for hours just to visit the only people she might be able to relate to, the girl Klarion mocked for her baby magic. She's her own person now, and no one will control her again.

When she made the choice to put on Nabu's helm and save her friends, she knew that he might never let her go. She knew that she might never truly see her father again, or be in control of her own body, and she accepted it. She was terrified, of course, especially when Kent Nelson disappeared into the afterlife and left her alone with a Lord of Order, but she knew what she was risking. Her father had the League to support him, and she wasn't even really a member of the Team. Oh, they might cry, and mourn, and yell, but Doctor Fate was more valuable than she was. What kind of hero would she be if she didn't trade herself for the world?

She'd pulled back, not wanting to watch as Nabu refused to let her go, so she was surprised when she felt him leave, saw the helmet in her hands instead of on her head. Nabu had been so insistent; what could have changed his mind? She saw her dad and she knew.

Her initial reaction was shock and emptiness. Zatanna had known that she might not come back; she hadn't considered that she might lose him. She didn't remember much of anything between watching her father put on the helmet and sitting down on her new bed in Mount Justice (although she knew, logically, that there had been a plane ride, and a debriefing, and a trip home to get her things…) Her second was sadness, and that Robin did his best to help with, without risking his identity because of Batman's stupid _rules_.

Her final response, after the dust had settled and she'd adjusted a bit, was anger. How dare he take away her right to make choices about her own life? How dare he throw himself away as though he wasn't worth so much more to the League and the world than she was? How dare he claim that he was a better choice, that the difference between his magic and hers was anything less than insignificant when compared to that of a Lord of Order? He didn't know anything! How could he possibly think that this was better, that it was okay to deprive the League of its most trusted magic consultant and her of her only family in one selfish move? She barely knew the Team, and now they were expected to be her only support network? Had he thought past his own survivor's guilt at all?

Then, of course, there was the League. Canary was the closest thing they had to a therapist, and of course Batman was too paranoid to even suggest that she go to a real grief counselor, somebody she could vent to that wasn't involved. How could she bring up how angry she was that Fate had taken her father's role as if nothing had happened when Canary would inevitably try to defend her friends and colleagues? No, she couldn't talk to Canary, and none of the others made an effort. It was almost like they hoped that by avoiding talking to her about what happened the problems would go away, but as time passed she only got angrier. It would calm down a bit, and she'd start to forgive, but then someone would mention Doctor Fate, or she'd be unable to figure out a spell because no one had _taught_ her, and the anger and resentment came rushing back. It wasn't fair, but more than that it wasn't okay, and the League acting like it was could only make things worse.

Things came to a head on one of the rare occasions Conner let them actually watch the news, instead of keeping the tv on static. She saw Doctor Fate, making a statement on behalf of the League as though he hadn't stolen his place from her father, as if he had any right to be treated as a hero, and the next thing she knew the screen was in pieces on the floor.

She'd run, and Megan had followed, and when the other girl had offered her a chance to get even Zatanna hadn't hesitated.

Her father would surely disapprove of her lessons with Klarion, but he'd given up his right to parent her when he'd put on that helmet. Batman would be disappointed, but she barely knew him, and the rest of the League was made up of so many strangers. Artemis agreed with her, that it was best to use any advantage you could get, and so did Robin, eventually. Kaldur didn't approve, exactly, but he never tried to stop her, and Conner had no room to judge anyone when it came to anger. Wally was basically oblivious, until he wasn't.

Zatanna resents Megan for trying to chain her, but it's so much less than what the League wanted to do, and the anger helps fuel her magic, so she suffers the attempts at control. Her magic is too powerful to make it easy, and she doesn't really care who's in charge of the team as long as she gets to make the thing that used to be her father and his so-called friends pay, so Megan mostly leaves her alone (she thinks, at least. Miss Martian can be subtle when she needs to be, and Chaos Magic isn't the best for detecting whether things have been tampered with. As long as their goals align, she'll give Megan the benefit of the doubt).

She's learned more from Klarion in weeks than her father taught her in years, and her skills are improving rapidly. She's still a bit of an outsider, the others all tied together with Megan and the Light pulling their strings, but she likes the Team. They're funny, and they make the best targets for prank wars, and they hardly ever try to curb her without offering her the chance to cause even more chaos in the future. It's better to be an outsider, anyway. If she keeps her distance, she'll be much less likely to get hurt.


	8. The Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which M'gann lives down to expectations

Miss Martian has no regrets. She knows that she's a monster, knows that she's proving all the worst stereotypes of White Martians, knows that even her allies are afraid of her now, but she doesn't care. (She isn't allowed to care. She chose this path; she knew the consequences when she started). She doesn't regret her actions, even if Wally is so broken there's nothing left to fix, even if Uncle J'onn won't look her in the eye.

Back on Mars she was less than nobody. She was a freak, a monster, the White Martian who thought she was good enough to play with the Green Martians, the weirdo who wouldn't shut up about her uncle on Earth, the warrior who shouldn't be allowed around civilized people, who shouldn't even _exist_. When she tried to be a hero, when she played human, she was the girl who didn't understand anything, the telepath who always messed up, the newbie who didn't even know how to use her powers right. She tried to fit in in school, and she had friends, but she was never really one of them, and she always had to be on alert in case she messed up, broke some unspoken rule she didn't know about, acted like the alien freak that she was. She had to be careful - don't shapeshift, don't mention telepathy, be sure to gradually alter your appearance, because humans age so _fast_ and you're in High School, you can't look fifteen forever. Her whole life was masks: M'gann the cheery Green Martian immigrant, Megan the ordinary cheerleader, Miss Martian the hero-in-training. She had too many secrets, and she had to keep up a cheery façade or everything would fall apart, everyone would hate her; it would be Mars all over again.

When Queen Bee started blackmailing her it was just one more secret, one more lie to add to the collage of deception that was M'gann M'orzz (Megan Morse. Miss Martian.). When she started training her, in ways her uncle couldn't or wouldn't (nothing too bad at first, just alter a few memories, erase some information; they're henchmen, they signed up for this) it was almost a relief. It was a way to release some stress, stop hiding for once (they didn't care that she wasn't Green, and if she was going to be the villain she might as well look the part), practice the things she didn't dare try in front of her teammates or the League. She wasn't sure when it became the highlight of her week, but by the time she started to worry about how much she was enjoying this obvious, unjustifiable villainy (by then she'd progressed to targeting Queen Bee's political rivals and the dissidents immune to her charms. She'd shapeshift into an interrogator and snatch information from their minds, leaving them comatose and broken) she couldn't bring herself to stop.

She didn't know Roy very well before, but she didn't blame him for running off with Cheshire when the League found the Original Speedy. She knew what it was like to be a false person, to wear so many masks it was impossible to figure out who you really were. She understood the urge to stick with somebody who knew him for who he was, not a persona constructed for him by someone else. She used the way Oliver freaked out, the way the League treated somebody who hadn't even realized that his existence was a trap, to justify her actions, which were coming dangerously close to full-on betrayal. She constructed more walls, more masks, more lies, because if this was how the League treated a potential threat who hadn't even known that he wasn't loyal how would they treat _her_?

Queen Bee gave her increasingly important assignments. The woman didn't trust her (why should she? Megan was a hero kept in line with blackmail and threats) but at least there was no expectation of trust, and as Megan carried out the Queen's dirty work without even trying to subvert her orders the "blackmail" excuse began to wear thin (they sent her, with Artemis and Zatanna, to Biyalia to find out details of the mysterious and powerful person helping the Queen. The mission was predictably inconclusive, and she spent the entire time fighting back laughter). She knew the League would never forgive her, but as she stood at the Queen's side, disguised as an aide (the real aide was long dead, but Megan had torn enough from the woman's mind to impersonate her flawlessly) and subtly influencing the female ambassador from Qurac she found she didn't care.

She does care about her friends, no matter what the League thinks. The hardest part of her side job was keeping it a secret from the others: she wanted to laugh about the look on that man's face when he realized just what he was trapped with with Artemis, discuss political strategy with Robin, talk about her worries and fears with Connor. When Queen Bee brought her to a meeting of the Light "to meet a few people", and she realized that her friends were already there with their families, she was ecstatic. Connor and Kaldur were already firmly on the side of the Light – Superman really shouldn't have ignored his son - if he wanted Superboy to betray Cadmus and Luthor he really should have given him some incentive - and what was Aquaman thinking, keeping Kaldur's parentage from him? – and although Artemis was reluctant (nothing a little telepathy couldn't fix) the archer had decided to throw her lot in with the sister she knew cared about her over the mentor who she had seen reject a boy who had literally spent his entire life with him for something he was unaware of and couldn't control. Once she had Artemis' support secured (she had to fix the boys right after; Connor was uncomfortable with the way she used her powers, and she couldn't have _that_ ) it was easy to convince Zatanna (Fate _stole_ her father, and they let him be one of them? If you work with Klarion, you could become powerful enough to get him back, make him pay for abandoning you. It would be so easy; don't you want to see what you're really capable of? You could be _great_ ) with only minimal psychic suggestion. The others laid all the groundwork for her to acquire Robin's cooperation: Zatanna cast a few spells to increase paranoia and resentment, while she, Artemis, and Kaldur casually worked indictments of the League into their conversations. They didn't say anything quite treasonous, but they made it clear that they didn't trust the League, and let Bat-paranoia work in their favor. After a few weeks of work, they had him half-convinced that Batman hated him, and the League was out to get them, while the other half insisted that the League were _good people_ , he'd given his life to them. He was tormented, conflicted, and he readily accepted when Megan offered to help him work through his thoughts and memories, despite Batman's codes of secrecy. Once she was in his head, past his mental defenses, altering his loyalties to align with theirs was easy. He thanked her when she was done (making people grateful for what she did was one of the first tricks Queen Bee had insisted she learn. It made it much easier to adjust any treacherous thoughts later) and she ruthlessly squashed any trace of remorse. Robin was with them, which meant she wouldn't have to fight against her friend. That was the only part that mattered.

Wally was an accident. Artemis had slipped up, mentioned something she shouldn't have known or expressed an opinion she shouldn't have held, and he'd run for the Zeta Tubes to warn the League. M'gann had seen him run, realized she had to stop him, and _reacted_. She tried to fix him, but his mind was shattered and she had no idea how the pieces were supposed to fit together, and of all of them he was the one with the least darkness to work with, the fewest villainous tendencies to exploit (He was a Flash. Even his _villains_ weren't terribly villainous). Ultimately, while Artemis gazed at the scene in horror, and the others arrived to see what had happened (" _Monster_ " " _Traitor_ " " _How dare you_ ") she settled for making him happy. She wrapped his mind in cotton to hide the splinters, and infused his every thought with unwavering trust and loyalty. Ignoring the others, who were in various stages of progression from shock to fear to anger, she pulled Wally aside. Speaking simply, as though he were a child, she told him not to trust the League, to act normally around his family, to always listen to her and the others no matter what. When he was gone, she confronted her teammates.

They were all angry now. Megan knew she couldn't fight all of them, and apologizing for what she had done wouldn't solve anything, so she did what she had to. Her eyes glowed, and all five of them collapsed. One by one, she went up to them, reached into their minds. " _I needed to do this_ ," she whispered. " _I had no choice; Wally was a traitor, he would have betrayed us all. I had to stop him, and now he has to be loyal. Think of how useful that is. We won. This was a victory. We can all be together now. Everything I do is for this team. Never doubt me. Don't regret anything. This is how everything has to be. I am the leader, and I will protect you_." It didn't matter if she was wrong, if she was lying, if she was terrified that she had made the wrong choices and knew that she could never fix her mistakes. They had to stay together; they were the first friends she'd ever had; they had to believe her!

M'gann M'orzz has no regrets. She leads her friends, and even if they aren't quite the same as they used to be they are happy, and they care about each other, and that's all that matters. So what if Zatanna resents her, and Kaldur and Conner pity her, and Robin and Artemis would hate what they've become, and Wally is too broken to notice or care? So what if Megan messes with their minds more than she should, checks to make sure that everything is still in place even when there's no sign of anything being broken, even though she knows her changes will never go away? Megan is the one who caused all this, or at least the one who sustained it. When her friends start to worry, she is the one who soothes away their fears and reassures them that everything is fine. Megan has no regrets, because if she breaks no one will be able to fix her.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a few other fragments in this AU I might post at some point, but I make no promises.  
> This was the first multi-chapter fic I ever completed, mostly because it's seven character studies in a trench coat. It was really fun to write!


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